I wasn't paying attention to the TV and had it on just for background noise. Leno came on so I decided to listen to his monologue. About half-way through, he said, "The public has spoken on the Democrat's Health Care Reform. It passed anyway."
Some of the jokes from late night TV about the administration have been pretty good lately!! Here's some someone emailed me (no link unfortunately).
So Nancy and Reid strongarmed a lot of representatives to vote for something that in all probability should have been tossed into the hopper. If they had done as some of the more level-headed Republicans and some Democrats suggested - research the situation and take it one step at a time instead of upending everything - it might have passed with larger numbers and might even have more of the public approving of it. But because it wasn't their bill (Obama, Peloski and Reid) they wouldn't hear of it.
Yeah, that's pretty much my assessment as well. The Democrats, Congress as well as White House, could see disaster coming their way like a thousand-ton freight train and figured they had to do something. Since they knew they had nothing to lose, they singled out health care. But no matter how desperate they are, it doesn't appear to have helped them. The freight train is still coming, at about 90 miles an hour...
It shouldn't have been tossed in the hopper. That's where the bills go to be voted on, the hopper. It should have been tossed in the shredder. [YT="Scene from TNT's Leverage, Parker steals a bill"]ExjiJCXyQZI[/YT] It's at around three minutes, five seconds in or so.
Yeah, nothing new here. But again we need to ask if government should govern according to popular opinion...
The problem is, if government does govern according to popular opinion, it will necessarily seek short-term solutions rather than long-term solutions, because relatively few people can see beyond short-term solutions. How many people care what's going to happen to society in 50 or 100 years, as long as their own problems are dealt with right now? But if government doesn't govern according to popular opinion, it won't stay in power, at least not in a democracy. It is possible to argue that Obama, Pelosi, Reid and others here have done what needed to be done and that that is a noble thing even though they will pay for it in the next elections (although I personally would hotly dispute that analysis), but it is not possible to argue meaningfully that they have done what the people wanted. That's all polls like this are saying. Lots of people have been trying to justify the strong-arm tactics, the secret negotiations, the special favours, and all the other dirty political tricks by saying that it was done in order to accomplish the will of the people against a malevolent elite that wanted to oppose them, but polls show that is not the case. The people want health-care reform, by a fairly massive margin, but not this health-care reform. The Democrats will and should pay for it in November.
There's governing by popular opinion, or not, and then there is the rat's nest of a congress we have now, who, along with the President, see the U.S. Constitution not as the governing principles of our nation, but as an obstruction to their desired goals, goals to be met at any cost, including trampling on the individual liberties of the citizenry.
There is also the opinion of many in public office - such as Obama - that they know better than anyone else what is needed. As though the general public had the IQ of a moronic mouse instead of a standard IQ of a human being. Also they seem to believe that taking an oath of office gives them super human knowledge or something "We know better than anyone else, including experts on the subject"
You know you're in trouble when the late night guys are cracking on you. They didn't really hit Obama when he was runnign and in the first few months of his term but now they are...
Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on some of those. First, because Conan hasn't been on the air in weeks. Second, because I keep hearing that Letterman is a bitter partisan hack, so I don't believe he'd tell a joke like that. The Leno ones are probably real.
None of those seem consistent with any of the comedians and their humor, except maybe Leno. These seem like they're tailored for a conservative audience.
Oh, so since they don't meet with your given perceptions they must be BS? How very... democratic of you. News flash, Letterman even for the shill he is has indeed taken plenty of jabs at Obie for a laugh and Conan was hammering him prior to his departure from the airwaves. You do know Conan is doing a tour, right?
Letterman was joking about health care protesters being the Taliban last year, so no, I doubt he's changed his stripes that much. Edit: Actually, neither of Letterman's jokes are about health care, so IMO that means they are more likely to be legit. And edit again: Only place I can find the Cash for Clunkers joke is an unsourced joke site that doesn't credit it to Letterman. So probably not.
Barack Obama struggles to capitalize in polls 29 March 2010, J. Gerstein, Politico Continues at link.....
One caveat about the above post: I normally wouldn't quote Gallup, but people like RickDeckard posted a Gallup poll a few days ago, so I am including it here for comparison. Gallup pretty much sucks these days as far as polling goes. According to a report compiled by a PhD candidate, Gallup ranked 17 out 20 firms for predicting accuracy in the 2008 election. Rasmussen tied with Pew for #1. They predicted the result exactly. Rasmussen shows Obama's approval at 47% (from 3/26 - 3/28 as a 47/52 split w/ 5 pt. differential). But the numbers are worse when you get into the weeds. As of 3/28, in reality only 28% of the nation strongly approve whereas 44% strongly disapprove, which is a 16 pt. differential.
I hereby deem the situation where poll numbers improve after Obama does something the Check's in the Mail bounce.
